Add weight to your walking workout by packing a sack

It will help get you ready for snowriding season.

Written by Wina Sturgeon

If you want to quickly start getting in shape for snowriding once the lifts start running, there are two ways to do it easily — sort of. One method is bike riding. If you live near mountainous dirt trails that are not yet covered with snow, take to those hills with your fat-tired bike.

Choose the trails with the most twists and turns. Ride up the berms of the turns as high as possible, which will work your core muscles, especially the obliques at the sides of your lower torso. In addition, ride up long steep hills, whether they're dirt or asphalt. Don't adjust your gears to make it easy; you need hard, continuous effort to build strength and endurance in your muscles and joints.

If there is a BMX track still open near where you live, that will make an excellent snowriding workout, it uses the same muscle groups. In fact, there are several Olympic and World Cup snowriding athletes who have been known to use BMX racing or mountain biking as a method of training during the summer.

But now that the weather is turning colder, you may not feel like riding your bike. That's why packing a weight for a walking workout is such a good thing. Load up a backpack to increase the work you must do as you walk. Weight plates are ideal, but since they cost about a dollar a pound, you may be better off with dumbbells or even ankle weights. Put the weight into a backpack and stabilize the load with foam peanuts or crumpled newspaper pages.

If you use crumpled newspaper for stabilization, it will have to be repacked frequently; the paper will quickly crush down, leaving the weight unstabilized. You don't want that to happen, because a shifting weight held on your back can stress or even strain the bones, joints or muscles of your core.

Use the weighted backpack only when walking. Don't run or ride a bike with a weighted backpack, because the load changes your center of gravity and thus affects your balance. In fact, it's important to give your body time to get used to the additional weight you will be carrying. Start with fairly minuscule poundage, like 10 pounds. Again, make sure the weight is stabilized. Do four walking workouts of at least half a mile to a mile before adding more weight.

As well as stabilizing the weight inside the backpack, stabilize the pack itself on your body. Make sure the straps are adjusted to your shoulders and the waist belt is snug around your waist or hips. You may walk briskly, but don't ever jog or use any pace that bounces the pack you are wearing.

You can also use another method of weighted walking: use several safety pins to securely fasten a pair of ankle weights around your waist. The pair of weights should rest on your abdomen and back, not your hips. Look for a set that is weight-adjustable, because again, you should start small — 10 pounds or so — to avoid injury. Gradually add more weight as you gain strength.

However, when using weighted walking as a workout, pay strict attention to the condition of your back. If you feel any kind of pain or pressure in your spine, either during the exercise or afterwards, walk without any weight at all for at least a week. The walking alone will build your lower body, and you can get your upper body into the act by swinging your arms as you walk.

While riding a bike up hills will get you into ski or snowboarding shape more quickly, it's not safe to wear or carry a weight on a bike. In addition, your bike may not be available when you have time to walk, such as on your lunch hour at work or school. Walking can be done anywhere, at any time.

Lifts across the country are scheduled to start opening around Thanksgiving. You will enjoy your time back on the snow much more if your body has been prepared for it.